TwitchUnity @ TwitchCon 2018

TwitchCon feels like Homecoming! We held our first panels and workshop at the very first TwitchCon in 2015 before AnyKey was officially formed. We have been fortunate to help TwitchCon’s annual diversity and inclusion space – first known as Inclusivity City, later housed under TwitchUnity – continue to grow through subsequent years.

This year will be our 4th time at TwitchCon, and we are once again thrilled to be in the TwitchUnity Lounge to meet community members, discuss recent research, and celebrate games together through our collective rainbow of diverse perspectives.

In a lucky turn of fate, our Director of Research TL’s latest book – which just happens to be about Twitch and game live streaming – came out just a week ago! We’re taking advantage of this timing to celebrate her book at TwitchCon! There will be a few copies for sale, a reading by TL on Friday, and a chance to get it signed by the author herself.

Unlike past years, the TwitchUnity Lounge will be off the main expo show floor and taking up its own space in Room230A on Exhibit Level 2, near the Table Top and Hackathon rooms. You can read more details about this space on the Twitch blog, but here are some of the highlights.

The TwitchUnity Lounge will host booths for several social benefit organizations and charities, Community Meet and Greets for inclusive communities, spotlights with Twitch’s diversity guilds, and sessions related to topics of diversity and inclusion in games and streaming.

TwitchUnity Lounge Sessions

Dr. T.L. Taylor shares some vignettes from her new book on Twitch, the work variety streamers undertake to transform private play into public entertainment, and how esports organizations have utilized live streaming to grow the industry far beyond what was imagined even a handful of years ago. Through interviews, backstage fieldwork at esports events, and extensive research in online spaces, she shows how the world of live streaming is changing not only gaming, but is part of bigger shifts happening across media.

There’s no single way to growing your channel on Twitch, and it can sometimes seem harder when advice is outdated or doesn’t apply to your style of content. In this talk, Twitch Partner & Stream Coach Ashnichrist will walk you through common misconceptions, and help attendees identify the best practices to grow their channel.

Sabina, co-founder and CEO of Elo Entertainment, is best known for making esports stats sites such as Dotabuff, Overbuff, and Artibuff. Beyond being a queer woman who co-founded a tech company, this talk will focus on the moral dilemmas that arise around serving less diverse audiences, recruiting diverse team members, and more.

Main Conference Sessions

As in past years, there are also informative sessions happening as part of the main conference speaker programming that might be of particular interest to those thinking about diversity and inclusion in the Twitch ecosystem. Here are some talks and panels to dial into your TwitchCon schedules: